December 14, 2011
Locating decent portraits of the cast members of this film is difficult. This film was shot on location in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada in 1942. The good thing about this is that the scenery on location brought a good dose of realism to the setting of the film (Norway), but the bad thing is that few opportunities were offered for portrait taking which requires more controlled studio conditions. Ned Scott saved no 8 x 10 glossies from this film, nor did he make enlarged 11 x 14 special prints of some of the images he favored (as he did for other films he worked). He did save a special movie booklet from the film, but most of the photos there were taken with smaller format cameras. This portrait of Muni is the more remarkable because Ned Scott strongly disliked him. Ned, along with everyone else on the set, had to put up with Muni’s arrogance, bullying nature and mercurial temperament. Of all the film stars Ned Scott worked with over the years, it was Muni he found the most difficult. Just getting him to pose for a portrait was a chore. Real life Canadian and British soldiers were used in the movie’s battle scenes, and this film was one of the first to chronicle the exploits of the Norwegian Resistance during German occupation. This film was one of two wartime dramas Ned Scott worked as WW II was raging around the world (the second was “The Story of G.I. Joe”, shot in 1944). I am sure he would have preferred to be in harness as a wartime photo journalist along with his good friend Peter Stackpole, but wartime military policy excluded him due to his hands being crippled during an accident when he was 19 years old.
Paul Muni photo from “Commandos Strike at Dawn”